I have some fun news to share with you! For several years now I have had a passion for birth and a desire to spread the word about it’s beauty and importance. My dream is finally coming true! I have begun training with Birthworks to become a certified childbirth educator. At this point it looks like I will be the only educator in Michigan certified through Birthworks. I can’t wait! Women and babies are my passion! At some point I would like to become a doula or midwife but as a homeschooling mom of young children that wouldn’t be the best for my family right now. I’m saving that dream for when they’re older. I figure it will give me something fun to look forward to when I have an empty nest.

My oldest daughter Emma just finished sewing her first doll. She had expressed an interest in learning to sew and I’m not a very advanced seamstress so we checked out some sewing books from the library. The book Emma found the most helpful was “Made By Me” by Jane Bull. It’s full of sewing, embroidery and knitting projects for girls that are easy to make. Each project is shown step-by-step with detailed pictures and easy to understand instructions. Emma chose the to make the doll from the book.

She is so proud of her new “friend.” Emma told me not to tell the doll that it IS a doll because she doesn’t want her to know she’s not real!

Fuzzy Wuzzy (in this case) is not a bear! Emma found a banded woolly bear caterpillar a couple weeks ago and we decided to keep him as a ‘pet.’ We’re hoping to see him turn into a moth. The nice thing is he’s very easy to care for. We put him in a gallon-size clear jar with a rubber band holding a piece of cloth around the top. We put a couple sticks and some fresh grass in the jar too. All he needs is fresh grass every day.

Emma came to me all horrified one morning thinking he was dead. It turns out he had just knit his cocoon around himself so now we’re waiting to see if he makes it to the moth stage. Fun!